Clinicians and AI: Finding New Roles

“Despite huge promise surrounding this technology, AI alone cannot support all the requirements for precision medicine, rather AI should be used in cohesive collaboration with clinicians,” says an opinion article published in the journal BIO Integration (Zeng et al. 2020).

The article cites studies showing a synergistic effect when doctors and AI work together, producing better results than either alone. These findings are reassuring in that clinicians need not feel threatened by AI, instead what they have to do is embrace the technology and optimise its use for the benefit of their patients.

However, as noted in the article, the increasing use of AIM has created confusion among clinicians as to their role in this era. “Therefore, it is necessary to explore new roles for clinicians in the age of AI,” the article says.

The article highlights three roles clinicians need to perform to help with successfully integrating AI into medicine.